Any updates or local info? PRAYING for the best.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-air-leaving-beloved-animals-behind.html

First I have heard of this. From reading the report it doesn't sound good, sounds like she had a visitor that might be up to something bad. I hope they find her alive and well.

Here's an update as of 6/9.

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2011/06/10/local_news/doc4df1aef86ecb5142042158.txt

She is dead, either some animal killed her or she fell thru the Ice someplace, or some person or persons unknown. I will bet coin its one of these.

"An innkeeper who reported seeing her eat a hamburger at his establishment reported she left in a pickup that didn�t match the description of Gould�s vehicle." (from the Froniersman article)

That is a new piece of information that I had not heard previously. Doesn't look good. Our prayers go out to her....

News Just In:

She has been found and is safe...... more details to follow.

Talkeetna musher Melanie Gould, missing more than a week, has been located alive. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race veteran contacted troopers in Cantwell today and is being transported to a Mat-Su hospital, troopers say.

Citing the musher's privacy, trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters refused to provide any additional information about Gould's condition or prior whereabouts.

Friends became worried about Gould, 34, when she failed to show up for work May 31. She had been seen alone that day buying gas and bottled water at a Talkeetna gas station, troopers said.

A wildife trooper searching for Gould by helicopter spotted her truck last Saturday, about 18 miles from Cantwell. But by Thursday troopers had found no additonal clues and called off a sweeping search for the musher.

Friends created a Facebook page called "Have You Seen Melanie Gould" that gained more than 3,000 followers and gave Gould's supporters and well-wishers a place to trade search information and stories about the musher. The page was updated about 1 p.m. today to say Gould had been found alive and safe, but provided no additional information.

Troopers today were taking Gould to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, Peters said.

Gould competed in seven Iditarods, beginning in 2000. She steadily improved from a 64th-place finish her rookie year to placing 18th in 2006. Gould scratched in 2007 after a crash destroyed her sled, according to reports at the time.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/06/11/1911137/missing-talkeetna-musher-located.html#ixzz1P0iq0sS1

Silly azz woman had everybody worried.

She owes...

Lots of potential scenarios where she would not owe... Though we may never know what happened, she may have a valid excuse...

That's possible. I hate the speculator's attacks via comment on the "news" sites. However, one way or another, even if not by her, I don't fathom an imaginable outcome that doesn't warrant an explanation. That what I should have said, "An explanation is due."

Then again, as I was thinking earlier today, if this had been some person in a remote village, it never would have made news, the dogs would have still been uncared for, almost no one would have cared, and she would have only been a statistic on the trooper logs depending on the outcome.

And with that, we'll see if ADN records the drowning while "skimming" with snowmachines, of a local young fellow this evening out in this part of the world. I'm sure they will, but the comments will be inciteful [intended], I sure.

Very odd....


Olson declined to say exactly where Gould was found, and it's unclear where she's been.

Friends say they don't know. Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said the details of the lost week are Gould's own business.

"She indicated that she saw search efforts but stayed away," Peters wrote in an email.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/06/11/1911137/missing-talkeetna-musher-located.html#ixzz1P2vMRiTt

She's DEFINITELY got some issues to deal with but it beats the alternative. I'm GLAD she's safe.

So if I get pissed off at the world, I can't hop in my boat and disappear for a few weeks?

Aimee Semple McPherson?

that time of the mo. i guess

sorry, but you leave your dogs foodless a week. ...and my wife always says it's just me.

i hear she hid on searchers..? if so she should see the "bill" for the troopers time..and the search dogs.... (still glad to hear she in one pice)...what u say....?

I have also heard that her cotton clothes got wet and she discarded them. This isn't smart as cotton can kill but it also quickly dries. The way that the dispatch wrote it up it makes sense that she didn't want to be found nekkid.

She probably was hoping to make it back without incident following the searchers back to the road.

Her friends took over watching her doglot when she didn't return.
Sincerely,
Thomas

I agree, especially if she doesn't have to tell them where she was or what she was doing. She basically wasted their time by hiding out.

.. ak hunter could be a left over hippe/dredlock/lib thing.."doing the nasty " out in the "woods" just trying to "find myself"....lol

What is your reasoning for her being responible for the cost of efforts of others, who she DID NOT ask to look for her.

She just wanted to be left alone.....but like all government, this is not acceptable. If they hadn't CHOSEN to interfer with her activities (unasked) they would have incurred no cost.

Guess she should just be glad they didn't pull a Ruby Ridge or Waco on her for being independent.

From the reports I read, she didn't tell anybody that she was planning to take some time and go for a hike etc. So if somebody doesn't show up for work, and leaves their dogs (she's mushed the iditarod 7 times, so quite a few dogs and most mushers are attached to their dogs) with no one to take care of them, people would tend to think perhaps something happened to her.

Unfortunately we do have a few freaky people up here, so under the circumstances one would expect that either there was foul play involved or she was injured and couldn't get back to her car.

Ok, we have a winner for the most ignorant statement of this thread award.

And one wonders why Texans are so popular in Alaska

uh, can you handle that they were looking for a possible kidnap victim. they got some mean horny bastids up there in ak.

sorry 458 and other alaskans. it's now agin tha law to kill them kinda suckers down here.

Are you really that stupid? She went missing, didn't tell anyone where she was going, didn't show up for work, and simply just vanished. She knew she they were looking for her yet she chose to hide from them instead. Your Ruby Ridge/Waco comment is about as dumb a comment as I have seen here in quite some time. Kudos.

A Superman comment for sure: leaps to tall conclusions in a single thought.

Nearly everyone is responsible to something or someone. Consequently people are going to keep track of that which concerns them whether it be friends, co-workers, or people concerned about the welfare of the beasts. Regardless, unless you really choose a reclusive life in the boonies (which probably means avoiding neighbors and name recognition competitions like the Iditarod, etc), you can expect that someone is going to look for your whereabouts. It isn't so much about 'big brother' watching - although it can be that too- as it is about preventing foul play problems which tend to play havoc in a somewhat orderly society.

Whatever she did, she probably could have done and avoided the media circus simply by making sure her responsibilities were covered - and perhaps they were - and that someone knew that she was going to be gone for awhile, someone who could have offered that info in a manner that would have avoided the hoopla. While it could be possible that their is a 'Chicken Little' involved in this deal, all it would have taken is a single person who knew just enough to say, "she's fine and doing her own thing" and it wouldn't have needed to become a focal point.

Troopers were involved in investigations out on the west coast over the past weekend involving a shooting of some sort as well as a drowning while riding snowmachines. Perhaps they're less newsworthy.

A few years ago, the State and the State Troopers were sued for not going and finding some people that had "gone missing" in the winter. The vehicle got stuck on an unmaintained road.

Anyone remember those details?

Too well...

Denali Highway, grandparents with a very small child. They made it a long way in from the west end but got stuck near McLaren and tried to walk out. Troopers were notified in plenty of time but refused to look until over 12 hours passed and that was after inept passing on of the report in the first place.

The family sued (and won) because the report was ignored...

And at 50 below, to boot.

Thanks, Art.

After that, Troopers may be inclined to search sooner rather than later.

In this case, I wonder about bipolar or some other disorder. Tis strange +P.

There are strange things done 'neath the midnight sun...

"... by the men..."

That's cause it don't require a midnight sun for women to do strange things....

Do women moil?

They (Olruns) walked right by "Moores Camp" (cabin,food,heat) But, by that time hypothermia had already set in and they were shedding clothes because they thought that they were too hot.

Sad deal. And poor response. If I remember correctly, they had stomped "HELP" in the snow and an arrow. The Troopers blew it off.

Robert Service? miles

yup...The number of kids that have memorized this for forensic competition is astonishing.
.............................................................
The Cremation of Sam McGee
Robert W. Service, 1874-1958


There are strange things done 'neath the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold.
The arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold.
The northern lights have seen queer sights
But the queerest they ever did see,
Was that night on the marge of Lake LeBarge
When I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tenessee
Where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the south to roam
'round the poles, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold
Seemed to hold him like a spell,
Though he'd often say in his homely way
That he'd sooner live in Hell.

On a Christmas day we were mushing our way
Over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold, through the parka's fold
It stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze
'til sometimes we couldn't see.
It wasn't much fun, but the only one
To whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night while we lay packed tight
In our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'er head
Were dancing heel and toe,
He turns to me, and "Cap" says he
"I'll cash in this trip, I guess.
And if I do, I'm asking that you
Won't refuse my last request."

Well, he looked so low that I couldn't say no,
Then he says with a sort of a moan,
"It's the cursed cold, it's got right hold
'til I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet tain't being dead, it's my awful dread
Of an icy grave that pains.
So I want you to swear that foul or fair,
You'll cremate my last remains."

Well, a friend's last need is a thing to heed,
So I swore I would not fail.
We started on at the streak of dawn,
But, God, he looked ghastly pale!
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day
Of his home in Tenessee,
And before nightfall, a corpse was all
That was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death,
And I hurried on, horror stricken.
With a corpse half hid, that I couldn't get rid,
Because of a promise I'd given.
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say,
"You may tax your brawn and your brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you
To cremate these last remains."

Now, a promise made is a debt unpaid,
And the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, 'though my lips were dumb,
In my heart, how I cursed the load.
In the long, long night by the lone firelight
While the huskies 'round in a ring
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows
Oh, God, how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay
Seemed to heavy and heavier grow.
But on I went, though the dogs were spent
And the grub was getting low.
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad,
But I swore I would not give in.
And I'd often sing to the hateful thing
And it harkened with a grin!

Then I came to the marge of Lake LeBarge
And a derelict there lay.
It was choked with ice, but I say in a thrice
It was named the "Alice May".
I looked at it, and I thought a bit,
Then I turned to my frozen chum,
And "This" said I with a sudden cry
"Is my crematorium!"

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor
And lit the boiler fire.
Some coal I found that was lying around
And heaped the fuel higher.
The furnace roared and the flames they soared,
Such a blaze you seldom see.
Then I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal
And I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like
to hear him sizzle so.
And the heavens scowled and the huskies howled
and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled
down my cheeks, I don't know why.
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak
went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow
I wrestled with grisly fear.
But the stars were out and they danced about
'ere again I ventured near.
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said
"I'll just take a peek inside.
He's probably cooked, it's time I looked."
Then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cold and calm
In the heart of the furnace roar.
He wore a smile you could see a mile,
And he said "Please shut that door!
It's warm in here, but I greatly fear
You'll let in the cold and storm.
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tenessee,
It's the first time I've been warm."

There are strange things done 'neath the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold.
The arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold.
The northern lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake LeBarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Service certainly captured some of the essence of that period and place. "My Madonna" colors the 'ladies' of that time in a surely different way than the girls one might find along Spenard or elsewhere.

Have many RS poems committed to memory, including the Cremation.

Mark,

Just read about the kid that drowned while skipping his snowmachine in todays paper.

As far as all the attention the missing woman garnered, it had to do with the efforts of her friends. We were up in Fairbanks the weekend after she pulled her disapearing trick, and people had taped fliers to the doors of businesses.

Friends like that would have been of great value had this been caused by foul play.

And one would assume they had no reason to think that this wasn't a case of foul play, or at the least suspicous circumstances.

Twas my thoughts as well Bender, in her right mind I can't imagine her leaving her dogs and specially her favorite dog behind.

I know if anybody ever found my favorite dog home by himself for longer than a day, ya might wanna look for me.

yea, i asked a patient how old she was the other day. she asked, 'this year'. another one i asked, 'look up'. she said, 'both eyes'. i kid you not.

no more news on little miss muffet? no abduction, no martians, no maniac? no drugs? No indictments? no confessions? no mental evaluation? its as if she vanished again.

eyeball,

Only news of late was a brief statement from her brother. She is staying with family right now I guess and all the dogs have been adopted out.

thanks

Well its good that she is ok and that she had friends that noticed and gave a dam! How many just go missing and nobody even notices?